South Florida Crime

FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – Hours before cab driver Jose Gutierrez says he was choked, robbed and beaten by two women in his cab on Wednesday afternoon, he made a stop at Westway Towing in Fort Lauderdale.

Gutierrez said the women needed to get items from an impounded car.

CBS4 obtained surveillance video from the tow company that shows Gutierrez walking around his cab while the two women lingered in the office and loaded items into shopping carts to place in the taxicab. After a while, Gutierrez picks up the women, along with their items, drives off.

Gutierrez said a few hours later, the women attacked him inside the Shady Banks neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale using a rolled up shirt to choke him and punched him in the face with a cell phone.

“This is the women that attacked me,” Gutierrez said while watching the surveillance video, “And this one right here. They attack me and they rob me and they try to kill me.”

Gutierrez still can’t believe what happened.

“I feel very disappointed that they act like that,” Gutierrez told CBS 4’s Carey Codd. “They should have just let me go and taken the money and not tried to kill me. I don’t deserve that.”

Gutierrez said the women drove off in his cab, ditched it a short distance away and ran off.

According to Darren Wells, the manager of Westway Towing, the Fort Lauderdale Police are investigating the case.

“Today the Fort Lauderdale Police actually came by to collect video evidence of the two females to identify them and continue their investigation,” said Wells.

Gutierrez said he hopes someone recognizes the women from the surveillance video and turns them in to police.

“They have to pay for this,” he said. “They never should have did that.”

Gutierrez told us Wednesday as his face and shirt were covered in blood that he thought he was going to die.

“I said, ‘Please don’t kill me, I have a family. I have a son and daughter, you know. A family. Don’t kill me, please,'” Gutierrez said he told the women.

The 59-year-old said he picked up the two women in his cab in Lauderdale by the Sea Wednesday afternoon.

“I said, ‘Why did you do that to me?'” Gutierrez told CBS 4’s Carey Codd. “I was going to give them the money, I said take the money. Don’t hurt me. Let me keep driving.”

Gutierrez said the women got $200 dollars from him but he managed to keep his cell phone and called for help. Surveillance video from a neighbor’s house shows Fort Lauderdale police arriving on the scene shortly after 5 PM.

Police put the Shady Banks neighborhood, near I-95 and Davie Boulevard, on lockdown for nearly an hour.

Residents of the area said they’ve never heard of an attack like this before.

“It’s getting to be a strange world,” said Gilbert Krough.

Fort Lauderdale Police dusted the cab for fingerprints and searched inside for clues.

“I wake up this morning at 5 o’clock to earn a living and look at what happened,” Gutierrez said.

Investigators say they have several leads they’re working to try and catch the women who attacked Gutierrez.